RUNNING IN OUTSIDE LANES - MOTTRAM - LOOK AT THIS!

Lane 2 on any normal track is not 406 meters. It's 402.3 (1609.344 per 4 laps). Either your track is weird, you screwed up your program, or you're making some other mistake. Mottram did not run much extra distance and it is intelligent to stay out of a box that way. El Guerrouj runs the first 800 of every championship 1500 in lanes 2 and 3, and he's won every single WC gold since 1995.

Are you saying that 4 laps in lane 2 is a mile?

No. 406 meters seems much more likely than 402.3

The lane 2 stagger for 400m is not 2.3 meters form the finish.

It depends on the width of the lanes on the track. I think that having lane two be exactly a mile, as TJP suggests is typical, is not usually the case.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0172.htm

Worst example I've ever seen is Prefontaine in his olympic 5000. Watch the race, of the 25 turns in the race for 18 of them he was anywhere from the extreme outside of 1 to the middle of lane 3. I honestly believe without the extra distance he could've won, medalled no doubt.

TJP:

I could be wrong. I'll see if I can find that article again. I know it was a formula based on the width of a lane of "most modern tracks" or something like that. I thought I was being very careful when I made the table. The track I run on is a nice all-weather version that's less than I year old. It looks pretty standard and state of the art to me. I've noticed when I do run out in lane 4 or 5 it makes a huge difference in my per-mile time. I'm one of these weird people who can happpily run 10-15 miles on one of these things--very convenient to where I live, no traffic, and easy on the legs.

Anyway, this is something I've been wondering about and wanted to get a discussion going. I'm sure I'll learn something from it.

Get a jones counter. Measure from the middle of each lane. Problem solved. As far as Pre or anyone being anywhere from outside lane 1 to lane 3....well, that's track. You can't pass people if you don't move outside. The guy who stays on the inside of lane 1 is the guy who gets boxed in the whole race and finishes in the middle of the pack. I'd be willing to bet a large sum of money that most medal winners run a bit over the race distance if you measure their actual line of travel. In fact, that would be a fun little research project. Stage a number of races on the track with a camera that follows them overhead. Calculate how far each runner actually ran. Designate a few "movers" who do nothing but make moves around people whenever they can, a few "static runners" who stay on the inside of lane one no matter what, a then a few "racers" who are just trying to race regardless of tactics.

Alan

here is a calculator to try:

http://nashvillerunner.com/toolbox/track_lane_distance_calculator.htm

it says 407 m

Sam:

thanks for the link

My next step will be to go over to the track and measure the lane width. Then I'll come back and plug it in. The more I read through the responses, including yours, the more I think my table might be right on after all-- 406.7 rounds off to 407

from the website mentioned a bit above:

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"However, there is a very easy way to calculate distances around the track in any lane, as long as one measures the widths of the lanes.

The formula is simply L' = L + (2 x pi x W), where: L = distance around the track in lane one (in metres); L' = the distance around the track in a higher lane (in meters); W = the net width of all lower lanes (in meters); pi = approximately 3.14159

For example, if you're going to be running on the track, and you want to max out the distance covered per track circuit and have thus decided to run in lane eight, W would simply be seven times the width of a single lane (using the common lane distance of 1.25 metres, W would be 8.75 metres). Using this equation, the distance around the track in lane eight would be 400 + (2 x 3.14159 x 8.75) = 455 metres. Completing four laps in lane eight would amount to 1820 metres, or 1.13 miles.

To put it another way, each increase in lane adds an additional distance d given by d = 2 x pi x w, where w = the single lane width. When w = 1.25 m, the common width, each increase in lane adds 7.854 metres to the length of a trip around the track.

The formula works for circular tracks, oblong tracks (two straights, two curves), or rounded rectangular tracks (4 straights, 4 curves) as long as curved parts are circular. Work it out!"

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if you measure your lane width yourself, YOU INCLUDE ONE (NOT BOTH) LANE LINES as part of the width.

the distance should be b/t 1.22 and 1.25 meters.

I wish I could find reference to it, but I'm absolutely certain there was a study done at either the 2000 or 2004 Olympics which used computer videotape analysis to determine the exact distance each runner covered. There was a very high correlation between this distance and the final place of the athlete.

The next time you watch an unrabbited race, check out the guy (girl) on the rail directly behind the leader. Dollars to dimes says that person medals.

this is pretty simple go to your track and measure the distance from the two turn stager mark, ie 400m start, back to the finish line. That is the extra distance per lap. Not very diffcult. You should also measure one foot out from the inside line since i think this is were they measure the track from. Whatever the difference is from lane 1 and 2 that will be the difference for 2 and 3, and so on.

nowhere man

Watch a tape of that olypic 5k, take note of the other top finishers esp. Viren,as well as Prefontaine. Huge difference Viren hugs the rail virtually the whole race. Just watch it.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Get a jones counter. Measure from the middle of each lane. Problem solved.

Alan

Alan, tracks are measured 20cm from the curb, not the middle of the lanes. The inside lane is measured 30cm if there is a curb.

The inside lane of a 400 meter track actually measures 398.12 meters for curbed tracks and 398.74 meters for uncurbed tracks. Theoretically, if you can hug the inside lane (inside of 12 inches) you can actually run less than the advertised distance.